Blackpool and The Fylde College

An individual approach, which sees over 20,000 students of all ages given the opportunity to actively engage with sustainability, sets Blackpool and The Fylde College (B&FC) apart from other organisations. The College recognises that corporate social responsibility and education for sustainable development are key elements of its culture and does not simply focus on reducing utilities and carbon emissions.

Student Engagement

The College has fully embraced the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) agenda and implemented a cross College approach to delivering and embedding Sustainable Development (SD) through the curriculum, Students’ Union, events and campaigns. 

The College believes that in order to provide meaningful student engagement programmes, students must have significant and meaningful impacts in the community and build sustainable partnerships. Student engagement projects are the starting point to encourage students to engage with this agenda and promote sustainability in a fun and interesting manner. 

Students and staff have been involved with a wide variety of events over the past 5 years which include:
- Mend not spend fashion events and clothes shows
- Eco Christmas fairs
- Green Week fairs and Fairtrade Fortnight events
- Sustainable travel events
- Charity fundraisers
- Biodiversity, beach cleans and Blackpool Food Bank volunteer days
- Charity collections – food, toys, clothing, books, bric a brac, stamp collections
- Students’ Union Christmas Jumper Campaigns – Keep warm and donate
- Paper recycling collections
- College allotment project
- Green Impact.

Curriculum

B&FC has taken on the challenge of integrating sustainability across every corporate department and curriculum area. The sustainability agenda has gained momentum over the past 3 years and is now integrated into strategic College targets and teaching plans across B&FC to the benefit of students, staff and the wider community.

The curriculum have worked with the Sustainability Manager to develop ESD specific projects that enhance their own curriculum and develop the sustainability skills of students such as team building and critical thinking.

Working with the curriculum areas year on year has enabled the College to create a bespoke bank of resources which includes:
- Schemes of work
- Tutorials
- Projects
- Activities and games
- Case studies.

These resources have been developed and implemented in the following areas:
- Joinery 
- Hairdressing, Beauty and Related Therapies
- Travel and Tourism
- Catering
- Coastal Management
- Access and Continuing Education
- Business and Professional Studies
- Childcare
- Literacies for Life
- Creative Arts.

The ESD resource bank is currently being further developed and is being turned into an interactive online resource bank which interlinks will all the online curriculum courses to benefit teaching and learning.

The College has successfully worked to embed ESD across the whole curriculum through implementing the following strategies:

- Provided sustainability training for staff (Staff Development days and introductory sessions)
- Meetings held with Heads of Schools to agree projects and activities going forward
- Included ESD in the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy
- Collated resources and made them available on the intranet or online learning resource -Moodle
- Senior Tutor and Teaching and Learning sessions were held to discuss how sustainability can be embedded into the curriculum
- Identified key tutors and staff to work on projects and campaigns
- Developed a network of staff who will engage with sustainability – provide regular updates and opportunities
- Held sustainability training for the Management Forum delivered by the Lancashire Global Education Centre
- Promoted ESD success stories via internal communication, social media and the local press.

Buildings and Carbon Reduction

The College has been dedicated to reducing its carbon footprint over the past 5 years through the implementation of the 10 year property strategy, Carbon Management Plan and by setting and monitoring strategic carbon emissions and energy reduction targets. Between 2010 – 2014, the college has successfully achieved a 22% carbon emissions reduction and 27% energy reduction. The outcome is an example of how an ageing Further Education College can embrace sustainability and succeed.

The College has accomplished these long term aspiration goals through the following projects over the past 5 years:

- Installation of new transformers at the Bispham and Fleetwood campuses
- Installation of voltage optimisation at the Bispham campus
- Decentralised boilers at the Bispham campus
- Overcladding to insulate the buildings and improve airtightness at the Bispham and Fleetwood campuses
- Upgrades of the Building and Environmental Management System
- M&E refurbishments of the University Centre, Fleetwood and Bispham Campuses
- Upgrading inefficient lighting to LED lighting
- Monthly meter readings to monitor performance
- Installation of 423 solar modules at the Bispham campus
- An 18 kW solar renewable system has been installed on the new Construction Skills Centre supplying electricity and hot water to the building.

- All new refurbishments and builds are designed to a BREEAM very good or excellent standard, include renewable technologies and utilise the most energy efficient equipment and installations on the market.

- The implementation of a waste contract in 2012 significantly improved the College’s recycling. 98% of our waste is diverted away from landfill, a minimum of 65% of which is recycled and 33% is sent to a Waste to Energy facility.

New ambitious targets have also been set for 2014-2020:
- Reduce utility related carbon emissions by 15 % by 2020 against 2013/14 levels
- Reduce energy consumption by 15% by 2020 against 2013/14 levels.

The College is currently on track to achieving these targets.

Main Contact Name: Pam Reynolds, Sustainability Manager
Main Contact Email & Telephone: [email protected] 01253 504288
Further information/website: www.blackpool.ac.uk
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